Learning How To Rest - Why Am I Making This? Issue #19
Good morning gamers!
It’s Julien. This is not a gaming newsletter, and if I take a look through my list of subscribers, I would say that significantly less than half of you would call yourselves “gamers”. It is also not morning as I am writing (or sending) this. Forgive me. This is actually my art newsletter. And by “my art newsletter”, I mean a newsletter that is just about my art.
Those who read last month’s newsletter may remember that quite a bit of it was dedicated to video games, and indeed that my new year’s resolution was to complete my small game project in 2022. But since then, I have made impressively little (although not zero) progress on it, which I am grateful for.
Grateful? Yes, that’s what I meant to say. Why is that? Well, you might also remember that last year, I reflected on almost every month in this newsletter with some level of burnout, stress, or lack of inspiration. For reasons unknown to me, I was putting quite a bit of creative pressure on myself last year, and I have been trying pretty hard over the last month or two to stop that. And I think my lack of progress on my game means I’ve been doing a good job! Other things I haven’t done:
- Take nice, professional photos of any of my pottery
- Send out the 8-9 rolls of film I took in December for development
- Scan any of the 32 Polaroids I took at the end of last year.
When I think about doing those things, I think - “I’ll do that later!” - with little to no guilt. And I think that is some real character improvement for me. I do plan on taking care of all that stuff at some point, but I think I also badly needed a break, and a little practice resting.
This also, of course, means that I don’t have any photos to share, be they film photos from the holidays or nice photos of all the pottery I’ve been making. And I have been making a lot of pottery. You’ll just have to wait to see it until next month!
I do believe that February will see me awakening from my slumber a little more. I will be participating in a pre-Valentine’s Day maker’s market at Maine Mead Works in Portland from 12-5 PM on February 13th (I’d love to see you there if you’re in the area!) I also expect that I will have some photos by February’s newsletter. And the little game progress I have made in 2022 so far has happened in the past few days, so it seems likely I’ll make more progress on that front, too. Lots to look forward to.
Speaking of the game, here’s Ceres, the player character in my game, getting into bed.
This was animated on my iPad, and is not currently implemented in the game. I have no idea how I’ll get this working in the game, honestly. The thrills of game development.
That’s all for now! I hope you have had a good start to your year, and I’ll talk to you soon.
Julien
PS. For anyone who cares, I have been playing video games during this time of rest. Notably:
Inscryption: This is an indie horror game where the main mechanic is a deck-building card game. It was on a lot of 2021 game of the year lists, and for good reason. I initially wasn't all that taken with it (I'm not really a horror fan), but the twists it takes are so incredibly good, and I was so, so, so moved at the end of the game, that I will be thinking about it for a long time. It is flawed, to be sure, but incredibly ambitious in a way that I have honestly never seen before. I just found it stunning.
Life Is Strange - True Colors: Basically a visual novel with a large budget. It could easily have been done in an Ace Attorney style without any walking around, which probably would have been my preference. As it is, you walk around a 3D Colorado mountain town, which is, admittedly, very beautiful. I liked the characters a lot and it was a well-told story. Didn't quite stick the landing for me, but I enjoyed the journey.
Tales of Arise: My partner and I just started playing this game, the newest installment in the Tales series of JRPGs, as it had been recommended in a few places. It's the first Tales game I have played since 2008's Tales of Vesperia, which I have played 3 times, in 2010, 2012, and 2020. We're only a few hours in (I think the game is supposed to be around 60 hours, unlike the 6-10 hours of the previous two games listed here), and I'm liking it so far.